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Experts@IoT

Our world in 2030

A look into the not so far off future.

How will we work in future? How will we get around? What challenges will we face? Experts from a variety of sectors give us an idea of what awaits us in the world of tomorrow.

Sami Haddadin, Director of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence against a purple background.

Sami Haddadin, Director of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence

In 2030,
“… we will have robots in all diverse applications and domains. But only if we invest significantly more than we are investing today.”

Sarik Weber in front of a fuchsia wallpaper.

Sarik Weber, Digital Advisor of Ottobock

In 2030,
“… we will have a strong influence of the so-called DARQ technologies, which is Distributed Ledger Technologies, AI, the Realities – mixed and augmented – and Quantum computing. And when these technologies merge together, we see a big leap and things we can’t imagine today.”

Christian Bauer in front of a violet wallpaper.

Christian Bauer, Head of Business Development at Volocopter

In 2030,
“… our way to work will change dramatically in a way, that we will have an integrated and intermodal mix of mobility options. It will be public, private, shared and we will use ground and air transportation.”

Annemike Unterschütz portrait photo.

Annemike Unterschütz, computer scientist and developer of driverless racing vehicles

In 2030,

“… a motorsport race could take place in any big city of the world. It would be nice if there would be races of human driven and automatically driven cars. You will have a lot of sensors and also interferences, that are not encountered yet.”

Scott Guthrie against a purple background.

Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President Cloud + AI at Microsoft

In 2030,

“… the cloud will be everywhere. It will connect all the things in the physical world and enable companies to achieve better business outcomes due to better data insights.”

Andrew Ng against a purple background.

Andrew Ng, expert in AI and CEO of Landing AI

In 2030,

“... the value added through artificial intelligence (AI) will no longer focus solely on software Internet companies. Instead, there will be software tools that enable millions of industry experts to custom tailor AI systems for their companies. As a result, AI will enable automation at an unprecedented level.”

Frank Appel portrait photo.

Frank Appel, CEO Deutsche Post DHL Group

In 2030,
“… there will still be mail around. Even in 2050. Because there are special needs — we will probably see growth again. Advertising is more efficient if you send mailings.”

Johann Jungwirth portrait photo.

Johann Jungwirth, Chief Digital Officer, Volkswagen AG

In 2030,
“… global companies like Volkswagen will not need a specific team that deals with digitalisation. Instead they will have a clear digital organization as a whole. At the end of the day, by that time, ideally all sectors and also all functional departments and all brands are transformed to be fully digital.”

Alexander Otto against a blue background.

Alexander Otto, Chief Executive Officer of ECE

In 2030,
“… shopping, to our surprise, will be in many ways much the same as it is today. But the process will be different and there will be a very close interlink between in-store sales and online sales.”

Jean-Marie Sol in front of a blue wallpaper.

Jean-Marie Sol, Group Agronomy Director of Bonduelle

In 2030,
“ …in some form or another, smart agriculture will be everywhere, and it will be inclusive. It will help to understand, anticipate and mitigate the impact of climate change and enable all types of farmers to make better decisions. The beauty of smart farming is that it can be scale neutral and will not require the expensive investments needed to afford large conventional equipment, which is way beyond the reach of small holders. With smart farming, it will be possible to develop solutions for farms of all kinds and sizes.”

Alejandro Agag portrait photo.

Alejandro Agag, Chairman of Formula E Holdings

In 2030,
“… E-Mobility will be mainstream, and the main category in motorsport will be electric”

Michael Chui portrait photo.

Michael Chui, partner at the McKinsey Global Institute

In 2030,
“… AI will have changed every job — but will have replaced very few of them. Almost every occupation has a significant percentage of activities which machines will find very difficult to do. And it will take a long time before that happens.”

Tim Berners-Lee in front of a blue wallpaper.

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

In 2030,

“… I would like the internet and the web to be platforms which allow humanity itself to achieve things that it desperately needs to do. To be able to solve huge problems like climate change it requires a huge amount of collaboration – eventually of people in different cultures that build a global democracy together.”

Kala Fleming portrait photo.

Kala Fleming, Innovation Strategist at IBM

In 2030,
“… I hope we have made progress on integrating technology. Having that may be the way that we cut through some of the politics and the other tensions that are hindering proper functioning of water systems.”

Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer and director of the CRA design and innovation practice

Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer and director of the CRA design and innovation practice

In 2030,
“… the urban mobility infrastructure will be significantly different. Digital networks and autonomous mobility will allow us to get the car we need when we need it. The idea of a single-family vehicle might become obsolete, giving way instead to an on-demand-ecosystem of vehicles with different form factors."

Sebastian Thrun against a blue background.

Dr. Sebastian Thrun, Robotics expert and CEO at Kitty Hawk

In 2030,
“… at least one-quarter of the cars in our cities will be self-driving. This means fewer parked cars, the cost of transportation will go down, and disabled people, senior citizens, and children can safely get around. So, more people will be able to enjoy car-based transportation.”

A portrait photo of Dr. Shohini Ghose.

Dr. Shohini Ghose, professor of quantum physics and computer science

In 2030,
“… computers will not replace all the ethical responsibilities that we humans have.”

Jörg Dederichs in front of a blue wallpaper.

Jörg Dederichs, Member of the Board of Management at 3M

In 2030,
“… innovation culture will be even more important than it is today, because more wealth will be generated through new business models, which are driven more by innovation culture than by anything else.”

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen in front of a blue wallpaper.

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Professor in Urban Planning at Aalborg University

In 2030,
“… we will have a better understanding of how we integrate new technological possibilities in our mobility and how we can use them smartly. It will increase the quality of life in our towns and cities.”

Roland Bush against a blue background.

Dr. Roland Busch, Chief Technology Officer at Siemens

In 2030, ...
"… transportation will be completely different. People won’t own their car anymore, they will have shared transportation. It will be intermodal, with a smaller CO₂ footprint and we will have a certain share of autonomous vehicles."

Catharina van Delden in front of a tourquoise moodboard with sketches

Catharina van Delden, Founder and CEO of innosabi GmbH

In 2030,
“… I hope we will have been able to push forward in terms of the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations. I really think we are at a crossroads in our society’s history, and we now have to combine assets and join forces in order to drive significant change.”

Katja Nettesheim, Professor of Digital Media Management at Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin and CEO of the consulting firm _MEDIATE

Katja Nettesheim, CEO of the consulting firm _MEDIATE

In 2030,
“… Digital Transformation will be a non-issue. It’s going to be the next normal. By 2030, we are not talking about Digital Transformation anymore, because we are so used being close to the constant dynamics of technological change and a changing user behavior that it is just normal to change all the time.”

Aries Liu, DiDi Mobility Innovation Center General Manager

Aries Liu, DiDi Mobility Innovation Center General Manager

In 2030,
“… I think most of the vehicles will be connected. We believe that vehicles will not only be connected with vehicles, but also with other IoT devices, and finally I think fully autonomous driving technology will be major and you probably can hire a robotaxi from the DiDi platform.”

Tobias Menne portrait photo.

Tobias Menne, Global Head Digital Farming, Bayer AG

In 2030,
“…farming will be so much more efficient. And the consumer will know exactly where his food is coming from.”

Andreas Tschiesner portrait photo

Andreas Tschiesner, Senior Partner at McKinsey in the Automotive and Advanced Industries sector

In 2030, ...
"… the first fully automated vehicles will be on the road. This development will be as drastic as the change from horse-drawn carriage to car. Cities will have to adapt with new traffic regulations and financing models but will benefit greatly from these changes."

Franz Josef Radermacher against a green background.

Franz Josef Radermacher, Head of the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing

In 2030, ...
"… the best scenario I can think of, regarding projects that initiate the production of synthetic fuels in northern Africa and fight climate change, is that we are then able to produce 4 million tons of methanol a year. This, for example, could compensate for 10 percent of the gasoline used in Germany today."

Chris Adams against a green background.

Chris Adams, organizer of the ClimateAction.tech community

In 2030, ...
"… we will have halved our emissions with green tech and we’ll be on the way to a more caring and planet-friendly economy."

A portrait photo of Claudia Nemat.

Claudia Nemat, Member of Deutsche Telekom’s Board of Management

In 2030, ...
"…the principle of human-centered technology — humans at the center of technological development – must have become a matter of course. Technology is not an end in itself; rather, it exclusively serves people and helps us overcome local and global challenges.”

Stefan Dohler against a green background.

Stefan Dohler, CEO of EWE AG

In 2030, ...
"“...the world is headed towards climate neutrality. With this comes added complexity and further decentralization of the energy system, which can be managed using AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things).”

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